paysan French · revision 16892

+ {{infobox|confidence=probable|formation=derivation|attested=c. 1140, Geffrei Gaimar, Estoire des Engleis|origins=la-lat pagensis}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA: /pɛ.i.zɑ̃/^(Wiktionary)

+ * IPA: /pe.i.zɑ̃/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''paysan''' ''m'' (plural paysans, feminine paysanne)^(Wiktionary)

+ Old French [[m|fro|païsant]] (about 1140), [[m|fro|païsan]] (about 1175); ''païsan'' in the Académie dictionary of 1694, ''paysan'' from 1617 (Crespin) and in the Académie from 1718.^(TLFi)^(GLLF 1989)^(Grand Robert 2005)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is an alteration of an earlier reconstructed [[m|fro|*païsenc]], derived with the suffix -enc (Germanic -ing) from [[la-med|pagensis]] at the time when that word had come to mean “country” (see [[pays]]).^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992) The change of suffix to -ant may be due to the nominative [[m|fro|païsens]] becoming [[m|fro|païsanz]], after the common type [[m|fro|granz]], [[m|fro|grant]].^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992) When final -z was reduced to -s in the 13th century, [[m|fro|païsans]] could be taken as the nominative of both [[m|fro|païsant]] and [[m|fro|païsan]], whence the latter form, later written with ⟨y⟩ after the noun for “country”, and the feminine [[paysanne]].^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)

+

+ The GLLF and the Petit Robert simply derive it from the noun, “man of a country”.^(GLLF 1989)^(Petit Robert 2007) Guiraud proposed a Romance derivative [[m|la-vul|*pagensanus]].^(Grand Robert 2005) In the south the word comes directly from the Latin, as [[pro|pagés]] (1150).^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992) Wiktionary relates it to [[païen]].^(Wiktionary) Compare [[es|paisano]] and [[it|paesano]].^(Littré 1873)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ Geffrei Gaimar's ''Estoire des Engleis'' (about 1140) uses ''païsant'' for a person who lives in the country and works the land;^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992) Wace has ''la sont li bon villain et li bon païssant''.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ In the 13th century it took the pejorative sense “simpleton, boor”, as noun and adjective (before 1250, Jean de Meun, 1269–1278).^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992) Furetière notes that it was often said of a coarse, uncivil, unclean man, even of some country nobles and of pedants.^(DHLF 1992) After La Fontaine's fable, ''un paysan du Danube'' is a blunt man of rough good sense.^(DHLF 1992)^(GLLF 1989)^(Petit Robert 2007)

+

+ It also had the etymological sense “inhabitant of a country, native” (1155), as in ''nobles païsans'' (before 1188) and ''li païsant et li lontain'' “the natives and the foreigners” (about 1280).^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992) The feminine ''païsanne'' is in Richelet (1680).^(TLFi) Its derivatives include [[paysannerie]] and [[paysannat]].^(Wiktionary)^(TLFi)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * c. 1140 – ''Païsant'' “countryman”, in Gaimar.^(TLFi)

+ * 1155 – “Native of a country”, in Wace.^(TLFi)

+ * c. 1175 – ''Païsan'', in Chrétien de Troyes.^(GLLF 1989)

+ * 1st half of the 13th century – “Simpleton”.^(TLFi)

+ * 1617 – The spelling ''paysan'', in Crespin.^(GLLF 1989)^(Grand Robert 2005)

+ * 1680 – ''Païsanne'', in Richelet.^(TLFi)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # A [[m|en|peasant]], a countryman who works the land, a [[m|en|farmer]].^(Petit Robert 2007)^(Wiktionary)

+ # ''(derogatory)'' A country bumpkin, boor.^(Wiktionary)^(TLFi)

+ # ''Un paysan du Danube'': a blunt, rough-spoken man of good sense.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(GLLF 1989)

+

+ ===Adjective===

+ # Of peasants, rural: ''la vie paysanne'', ''le monde paysan''.^(TLFi)^(Petit Robert 2007)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[paysannat]]

+ * [[paysannerie]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[pays]]

+ * [[païen]]

+ * [[la-med|pagensis]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}